I’m a huge fan of the block… I have loved it since it started, and this year I am in LOVE with Daz and Dee.  I am a huge fan of the “Hamptons” styling, but I love modern too.  Daz and Dee are putting the two together perfectly.  When I saw their main bathroom, ‘it was love at first sight!!!’  (Yes, I’m a Kylie fan too. lol)

Anyway, I loved it so much we are going to ‘copy’ it.  Well the floors anyway.  I have a built in bath, insert sob here… really wanted the free standing… but the money tree stopped growing.  Anyway, the walls are all big white rectangle tiles and then the amazing feature tile on the floor.

Picture from The Block – Channel 9

We were going to go with a hexagon feature on the walls, but when I saw Daz and Dee’s design I knew that was more “me”.

This picture was taken from the Bunnings catalogue 

These were the colours we had chosen, with our floor tile on the left.

So the amazing floor tile is called ‘Milan’ from the Artisan range by Southern Cross Tiles.  We are going with ‘Charcoal’ for the colour, but there are 9 other colours to choose from. (Mist, Ash, Black, Black Dark, Clay, Chocolate, Forest, Sky and Denim)  They are non-slip with a P4 rating (I don’t know what that actually means. lol) and don’t require sealing, again ????, but it certainly sounds good!!!  The size is 200x200x7mm.  Another great selling point, they are Australian made and owned!!!

Our cabinets are white, and the bench top is also white.  I think I will have to look out for a nice pendant like this one in the photo.  I just want to go shopping and start buying stuff, but I will hold off until the house actually starts… and well I have no idea when that will actually be!

On a positive note – we submitted the plans to council today for the planning permit!  This has taken a long time to prepare, and I’m crossing everything that it is perfect and we will get approved without too much hassle.  (one must have hope)  We require planning permits as we are in an inundation zone and also had a design and development overlay as our property is close to a river.

The tile below is a feature tile we are having in the ensuite shower to bedroom 4.  We couldn’t decide whether to go the circles or the lines… we ended up going with the circles.

This tile is by Everstone and is called Durastone Porcelain – 3D Ispring.  I really love this tile.  Initially it was going in our bathroom, but then we went with the hexagon, and now the Milan, lol.  I still loved it, so we put in the spare ensuite (which will eventually be daughter’s room – we she is old enough to clean it herself)

Above is the feature tile in the shower of the main bathroom (kids bathroom).  One wall will have this, but in the turquoise and charcoal colour shown below. (bottom right) The floor tile is the dark timber look (a CAT 2 tile), and the large white rectangle (also a CAT 2 option)

I’m really excited to have something “different” and can’t wait to see them in my home… whenever that might be.

Has anyone used these tiles or gone with your own ‘something different’?  I would love to see your pictures.

And to those who have built the Airlie or going to build – did you have the built in bath, or the free standing???

So we had our colour appointment and electrical appointment during the week.  I thought it would be stressful, but it actually was rather enjoyable.  We got through it all much quicker than expected, and I think that was due to the fact that I went in prepared.  I had been to visit the showroom twice, so was well aware of what was available.  We also had most of the extras we wanted included in our quote prior to the colour appointment.  The main area that caught me off guard was  the staircase stain.  Nothing matched our Spotted Gum floor…  We really didn’t know what to do…  We ended up going a really dark stain (think chocolate brown) so it’s a total contrast.  We have dark tiles in the wet areas so I’m thinking it will tie in with this, and blend with some of the dark parts in the wood floor???  I guess time will tell….

Bricks and Roof

These bricks are from Category 3.  We have taken the front render off so went a nicer brick.  The tin roof is by Colorcote and the Off White is similar to Colourbonds Surfmist.  We (well maybe 1) wanted a light coloured exterior to the home.

The render around the front door, and the feature over the window will be in Limed White Quarter.  The cladding/weather board look will be in Lexicon.  Windows are in White, and gutters etc in Off White.

The garage door is in Surfmist.  I’m very excited for the front facade – very happy with our choices.  It’s funny how all the colours start to look the same when you stare at them for so long.

The front door lock was an upgrade. But we went with the above handle.

Carpet – The middle colour – Ocean.  Again an upgrade.  This is the same carpet as the display in Wollert which we loved!!!

Tiles in all bathrooms and the laundry.  Cat 2.  We went with very dark grout…  Hope it looks good!!!

Laundry – Floor tile, Polar white cabinets (above and below bench), counter top in Moose. Which is a greyish colour.  This is laminate, not stone.  If we change to a front loader down the track we will replace with stone and extend to run the length of the room.

The downstairs powder room and children’s bathroom has the same polar white cabinets but with a stone bench top in Urban stone. (grey)

Our daughter is after a pink room, so we went for a pale pink – Wisp Pink (second from the top)  She had a pink room at one stage in Sydney and she is after it again.

The long pull down sink mixer will go in the pantry, and we opted for the standard on the island bench.  We will replace that one with a black mixer after handover.  Boutique don’t offer the black tap range.  Urbanedge do, and they look amazing!!!

This is the selection of stone… we went with Frosty Carrina (4th from the left, bottom row) (Cat 3) for the kitchen counter tops.  Polar white cabinets.

The electrical part went well, it is kind of crazy how quickly it adds up though. We focused on getting downstairs right as that will be hard to change later.  We weren’t as concerned with upstairs.  Our electrical and colour consultant were fantastic, they were very easy to deal with and have kept communication going which is great.

So that’s the bulk of our colour choices.  Now the waiting begins again…

Boutique’s showroom is very small when compared to Urbanedge and Metricon.  Metricon have a massive space – it really is huge!!!  Everything is on display.  Boutique pretty much have a choice of two items.  More are available but you have to ask prior to your appointment and then go and check items out yourself. (if you want to see them in person)  There are no doors on display, only small samples of stone, brick, toilets and sinks etc.  On a positive there was no “up-selling” but at times I thought it would have been really nice to see the options available.  As an example:  with our staircase, we could choose round or square as the finish on each step.  There wasn’t an example or even a picture to show us the difference of how each style would look.  No bath or, staircase options on display either.  It probably saved us money though!!!  

If you are building, did you find it easy to pick your colours?  Or did you fight with your partner?  Did you find it easy to stay within your budget, or did you want every up-grade available???